Today’s post are the ramblings of a frustrated CEO, Ronald D. Southard, at SafeSourcing Inc

Do you know your company’s numbers? Is your plan the same as your company’s plan?

Often when I meet with procurement knowledge workers regardless of company structure, so buyers, category managers, purchasing department manager etc. and ask these two questions, the answer I get is often baffling. I have heard all manner of responses that center around the following. My numbers are based on my categories and do not really have anything to do with the companies’ total numbers which our department does not have a view of. So, I forget about asking questions about Gross Margin, and Net Earnings because this team lead is focused on his/her personal and or department numbers and their own pay plan.

I guess if I assume that every category manager is set up with their own P&L (they should be) and they all beat their plan that theoretically the companies cost of goods should go down and gross margins go up. However, that’s not happening corporately as projects never happen in a straight line. Award of Business and time to contract are often disconnected by months. As a result, all the best efforts of the procurement team may result in team bonuses even though company results do not improve as much as they should do timing that erodes the contract value in year over year results. Let us just stick with this example and not even get into expense management which does not impact gross margin. Capital Plans are another issue all together but equally requiring the focus of Procurement knowledge workers. More on that crime at another time.

At SafeSourcing we know how to mitigate these issues and assist in the alignment that is focused on reducing costs and improving earnings for all company stakeholders.

SafeSourcing is a Procure to Pay SaaS based provider of a number of e-Procurement solutions and associated with our best practices focused white glove services that are part of our SaaS offered SafeSourceIt™ eSourcing suite. These include but are not limited to SafeContract™, SafePO™, SafeDocument™ and our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database that includes over 557,000 vendor/suppliers. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc

You should be asking smaller suppliers if the qualify as a Second Tier Sourcing Option.

Companies should let their customers know if they are a minority owned, partially owned, woman owned or veteran owned business. Many companies plans call for supporting these types of businesses so why not let them know. SafeSourcing is a veteran owned business.

Second Tier Sourcing is a procurement policy that is used by various Fortune 500 corporations. This is a practice of rewarding suppliers for attempting to achieve minority-owned business spending goals of their customer(s).

The program was created by the Chrysler Corporation in 1993 and now extends throughout the Fortune 500. In 2005, Toyota set a goal of 10% for their suppliers and holds an annual matchmaking event to help their suppliers achieve those goals.

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in almost any commodity, service or capital related spend including software and development costs. Our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database is an often-used to assist companies in finding vendors that are Second Tier, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

Today’s post is from our archives at SafeSourcing Inc.

While many buyers are acquiescing to higher prices month over month, it might be easy to assume that there is no other way. I am sure you know the old saying about what happens when you assume…

The truth is there are purchasing organizations out there who are still responsible for and capable of reducing their cost. As others talk about inflation, supply chain issues, the pandemic, and whatever other excuse du jour is popular at the moment, some are ignoring the noise and delivering cost reductions.

So, what is the difference between these types of procurement professionals? How does one decide that the best path is to accept price increases and the other decides to push back and win? Further, how does the latter actually succeed?

Tools like SafeSourcing’s SafeSourceIt™ suite of eProcurement solutions certainly play a critical role, but that is not the real differentiator here.

The real difference is the person. In the face of challenges, some will continue to try, and some will not. It takes determination, grit, and confidence to succeed as a buyer in these market conditions. I am truly fortunate to have the privilege of collaborating with many people with these exact traits, both as customer partners and as teammates here at SafeSourcing.

Because of this, I also get to watch these people persevere and create cost reductions where others say it is not possible. That is a very exciting thing to be a part of.

You must decide for yourself how you will react to challenges and whether you will continue to fight or roll over and die. If you would like to keep fighting to meet and exceed your cost reduction goals, we are here with you.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.